


Oh, to the Void with You

by SingingInTheRaiin



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Emotional support animal, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Immortal Rose Tyler, Jack and Rose are best bros, Post-Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sort Of, Temporary Character Death, more like suspected character death, poor Rose Tyler, the Doctor is smitten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 06:17:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20372059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: During the battle of Canary Wharf, there's no way for Pete to know that Rose was about to fall, so there is no one there to catch her as she drops into the void. The Doctor does not cope well. Neither does Rose.





	Oh, to the Void with You

A Dalek rammed into the lever in front of Rose as it was pulled into the void, and Rose knew that it was imperative that the lever be moved back in place. She reached out, but it was just too far away, and Rose had to let go of the clamp in order to grab the lever. She finally pushed it back into place, hearing it lock in, and she heaved out a small sigh of relief at the knowledge that all of the Daleks and Cybermen were still going to get pulled through. 

The only problem left was that Rose could feel herself being pulled as well, and her grip on the lever wasn’t as tight as it needed to be. She could hear the Doctor’s panicked voice telling her to just hold on, but it sounded as though it was coming from miles away. Rose tried to hold on, because of course she didn’t want to die, but equally important, she didn’t want to leave her Doctor behind. She’d just promised him forever; she couldn’t go back on her word now.

But the pull of the void didn’t seem to care about Rose’s promise, and she lost her grip on the lever. She called out for the Doctor out of instinct, as if he could somehow jump in last minute and save her, just like he always did. He stretched one arm out to her, and looked just about ready to let go and follow her into the void, but then he disappeared from sight.

,,,

The Doctor screamed Rose’s name, and watched with horror as she fell into the void, reaching out for him as she fell. She was only human. She would never survive the void. And then almost the moment she was gone, the rift sealed itself back up, and the Doctor slammed into the floor, though he felt completely unaware of the ache that it caused. Rose was gone. Not just trapped in a parallel world, where she’d have had her mum and dad and Mickey, but gone forever. Dead. The Doctor stayed where he was on the floor, eyes squeezed shut. 

Rose had always had such faith in him, but he’d let her down. He’d failed her. He wanted to tear Torchwood to pieces, wanted to destroy all of them for killing Rose, but he knew that he couldn’t. Rose wouldn’t have wanted him to. The Doctor let out a choked sobbing noise, though no tears fell. 

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before he was finally able to get to his feet, and drag himself back to the TARDIS. He ignored everyone who tried to talk to him as he stumbled into his blue box, and slammed the doors shut behind him. He could hear a hum of greeting in his mind, and he was even angry with the TARDIS for not sounding more distraught over the loss of Rose. He’d always thought that his ship had a special love for Rose, just the way that the Doctor himself always had, but he must’ve have been wrong, because the damn thing only sounded mildly upset. 

Well no, that wasn’t fair. He could feel the TARDIS’ grief heavy around him, but that just didn’t feel like enough. Rose was gone, so shouldn’t the entire world just end? For a moment, he thought of Jackie Tyler. She would never know that her daughter was dead. She would just assume that the Doctor had kept Rose safe, and that they were merely separated. The Doctor wished that a separation was all that had happened. What was the point in a world that didn’t allow Rose Tyler to survive? The Doctor considered finding one of the last closing rifts so that he could tell Jackie what had happened, so that she could hate him as much as he hated himself in that moment.

But that would just be cruel. It was kinder to allow the woman to live the rest of her life imagining Rose traveling through the stars, as she was meant to be doing. And it’s not like Jackie would actually be able to slap him the way he deserved, since it would most likely only be an image projection. 

The TARDIS took them back to the time vortex, though the Doctor was barely aware of their movement. He couldn’t stop thinking about Rose, and seeing her in all of his memories of the past few years. She had entered his life at a time when he’d been broken and had no hope, and she had saved him and brought him back to life, and had given him so many precious gifts. And in exchange, he had gotten her killed when she was still so young. 

If this was his punishment for ending the war, he could understand, but what had Rose ever done to deserve such a fate? Dying in the void would not be quick and pleasant, it would be- no. The Doctor couldn’t let his mind conjure up images of Rose suffering in her last moments. It was selfish of him, but he knew he would break apart entirely if he let himself imagine. 

The Doctor drifted around aimlessly for a while. He knew that the TARDIS was worried about him, but how could he possibly think of moving on? He could barely even move around the ship, because everywhere he went in it, there were reminders of Rose. He couldn’t even touch her jacket, which was still hanging over the railing where she’d last discarded it. 

Losing everything at his own hands to end the war had made the Doctor miserable. He’d put up walls after that, but a simple little shop girl from 21st century London had somehow managed to wiggle her way in, and he’d stupidly let her. He should have sent her away long ago, after Sarah Jane, maybe. Or sooner. He should have never taken her with him in the first place, though that was an equally unbearable thought. 

The Doctor had always known that Rose was human, and would only have a human lifespan, but despite all of her promises, he’d almost always imagined that she would leave him someday to live an ordinary human life, and it would hurt, but he was used to that, since all of his companions eventually left him. Sometimes, though, he’d dared to imagine that she stayed for as long as she could, up until her body would no longer let her run, and even then, maybe she’d stay on the TARDIS, and the Doctor would mourn her short lifespan, but would still have many years with her. Somehow, the Doctor had never imagined that he would lose her so soon, and that she would be dead. 

Days, or maybe months, passed, with the Doctor pushing himself through adventure after adventure, helping everywhere he possibly could, trying to keep his mind off of Rose for even a minute. But traveling the universe was no fun alone. Each new place, as he stepped out of the TARDIS, he found himself glancing to the side, ready to explain where they were, only to remember that there was no one there to hear him. 

Except for one time when there was, and the Doctor had turned to see a human woman in a wedding dress of all things, shouting and filling the quiet space that had surrounded him for far too long. And, well, what better distraction was there than something he didn’t understand? 

The Doctor lied to Donna, at first. Told her that Rose was alive and happy with her family. It was the only way to get the loud woman to trust him, and he wasn’t about to let someone else die on his watch, not if he could help it. But he felt guilty, so at the end of the day, when he brought her home after she helped him save the world, he told her the truth. “Rose is gone,” he said quietly. “Forever.”

There was a sympathetic look on Donna’s face, and it hurt to see it, because the Doctor didn’t deserve sympathy. If it wasn’t for him, Rose really would be alive still. “I can’t go with you,” she explained after turning down his offer. “I think that your life is always like this, all over the place and danger and running, and I don’t think I could keep up. And I’m sorry about Rose, I can see how much she meant to you, but I don’t think I can face those kinds of dangers.” Then she pulled the Doctor into a surprise hug, and made him promise to find someone. The Doctor knew he’d never find anyone like Rose again, but he promised anyways, because he didn’t want to let Donna down.

There was more time on his own, and then there was Martha. She was truly brilliant, and brave, and eager to learn, but the Doctor had learned from his time with Rose what it looked like when someone fancied him, and he could never feel the same way. When Rose had died, she’d taken both of his hearts with him, even if he’d been too much of a coward to ever tell her as much when he’d had the chance.

They went to the end of the universe with Captain Jack Harkness, and there was a strange look on the human’s face. “Doctor… I just have to ask. I saw Rose’s name on the list of the dead…”

For a moment, the Doctor thought about lying, but then Jack’s whole body drooped down, and the Doctor knew that it was too late because his face must have given it all away. He clenched his jaw, not wanting to start crying. It had already been so long without Rose, in fact longer than the short amount of time he’d had with her, but it still hurt so much to think about her. Jack rushed forward to pull the Doctor into a hug, and the Doctor knew that Jack was grieving too. He had clearly hoped that Rose had been with the Doctor all this time, and to learn otherwise was unbearable. He talked about how he’d gone to see young Rose, and the Doctor would have done the same, if he thought he would be able to resist the temptation to just take her away before they could even meet.

Jack didn’t stick around, and neither of them talked about why, but the Doctor was pretty sure that it was because Rose wasn’t there. The two of them had grown close in their short time together. And there was also the fact that Rose had saved his life. What better compliment was there than to know that Rose Tyler hadn’t wanted him to ever die? he joked. 

So the Doctor and Martha were left to figure out how to save the world on their own, after the TARDIS was stolen and it seemed like everything was going so terribly. 

In the end, more lives were destroyed. Martha and her family were never going to be the same again, but at least they were still alive. Maybe it was for the best that he was on his own. Clearly it was too dangerous for anyone to travel with him, especially fragile little humans. He made a small exception to fetch Jack from the end of the universe to bring him back home, and then went about on his own. But there was Donna again, bags packs and ready to go the moment she saw him, and the Doctor reluctantly agreed to bring her onboard. 

It was one of the best decisions he’d made in a while. He and Donna quickly built up an incredible friendship, and the Doctor never worried about Donna wanting anything else from him. They made a good team, and were able to laugh it off when they were mistaken for a couple. Had Rose and he ever been mistaken for a couple? The Doctor couldn’t even remember. 

As soon as he realized that he couldn’t remember every detail of his time with Rose, the Doctor felt frozen in place. How could he possibly forget about her? After everything that they’d been through together? He was afraid that he was about to start hyperventilating, which would make no sense, because the whole point of having a superior respiratory bypass was so that he wouldn’t have trouble breathing. 

Donna reached out to cautiously touch the Doctor’s shoulder. “Doctor? Are you alright?” 

He blinked a few times, and then forced a smile on his face, though he was pretty sure that Donna could see right through it. “I’m always alright.” Though he was pretty sure that she’d long ago figured out that that statement never meant what it was supposed to. “Anyways, where to next, Donna Noble?” 

They met someone who knew the Doctor’s name, and he had no choice but to trust her, because how could someone possibly know his name if they weren’t… and yet, how could he ever think of moving on? Sure, he’d already had a wife, and kids, and a fantastic granddaughter, but that wife, as much as he’d thought of her as a friend, had never really been anything other than that with him. Rose was the only one who’d been different. 

Then the Earth was stolen right out from beneath them, and Mickey Smith showed up to help, along with other friends. When the Doctor had to tell Mickey that Rose was gone, he was surprised that the man didn’t get angry. He just gave the Doctor a sad smile, and said that Rose had wanted to spend her entire life with him in the TARDIS.

Once again they saved the world, though in the process an apparently genocidal human version of the Doctor had been created, and Donna had taken in some of the Doctor’s DNA. Neither the human Doctor or the DoctorDonna could survive having a Time Lord brain in a human body. With Donna, he could remove all of her memories of the Doctor and she would be okay, but there were too many memories to take away from the human Doctor. The human Doctor stayed on the TARDIS, and deteriorated quickly over the course of the next four days until he died. 

It was 1851, and Cybermen were on the loose, having apparently escaped from the void, and the Doctor hated them for being able to survive, and for reminding him so much of the shop girl who hadn’t, so he was quick to take on the case and help save the city. Honestly, no wonder Rose had been so jeopardy-friendly when she came from one of the most jeopardy-friendly cities in the universe. 

The Master came back, and for a brief moment, so did the other Time Lords, and then the Doctor was dying to save Wilf. He went to visit all of his companions one last time, including Rose from before they’d even met, and then he was ready to go. For a moment, he considered not regenerating, the way that the Master once had, because he was so tired, and he missed Rose so much. 

But the process started before he could stop it, and then he was crashing into the shed in the backyard of a little girl, and when he realized that it was easier to stop thinking of Rose in this new body, he felt guiltily relieved. 

,,,

Amy and Rory were sleeping when the Doctor felt one of his pockets get warm, and he pulled out the leather wallet that contained the psychic paper. There was a message scrawled across it, nothing more than a time and a place. The Doctor grinned to himself, always happy to go running when River called him, since she always had some great adventure in the works. 

It wasn’t until the TARDIS had landed and the Doctor had peered out that he realized he’d been here before. Then he frowned. River wouldn’t intentionally ask him to risk his own timeline unless it was important, right? And besides, he was parked on the outskirts of the city at the moment, so as long as he left within a couple of hours, there would be no chance of him running into his younger self. 

Amy always got excited to dress up in historical clothes, and the Doctor and Rory both waited somewhat impatiently for her to finish getting ready before they could finally head out. He followed the address that he’d been given, and they ended up in front of a run-down looking house. It looked like it would collapse any minute if a strong enough gust of wind were to blow past it. 

When the Doctor hesitated, Amy leaned past him to knock on the front door, giving him a brief roll of the eyes as she leaned back. It didn’t take long for the door to swing open, revealing a familiar face that the Doctor had certainly not expected to encounter here (or at all, if he was being honest with himself). “Jack?”

Jack narrowed his eyes. “Who are you supposed to be, then?”

The Doctor blinked a few times before glancing down at himself and taking in the tweed jacket and suspenders. Oh, right. “I’m the Doctor. Suppose I’ve changed a bit since you last saw me?”

Jack looked wary and confused, and didn’t step aside to let the Doctor in. “I’ve never seen you before in my life. What’s your name? Doctor what?”

“It’s alright, Jack, you can let him in,” another voice called out, and the Doctor froze. That voice, that beautiful voice, was so achingly familiar, and yet it was impossible, wasn’t it? He shoved past Jack before the man could move back, and rushed into the house, which seemed to only be made up of a single room, and there, lying on an uncomfortable looking bed was a face that he’d really never thought he would see again. He stood in the middle of the room, confused, and afraid that this was all just a dream or an illusion. 

She looked at him, eyes sweeping up and down, and it took a moment, but then there was recognition in her eyes, and she offered the Doctor a smile. It wasn’t as bright as some of the ones he remembered, but just the fact that it was Rose made it the most brilliant thing he’d ever seen. “Rose,” he choked out, and then dropped to his knees just in front of her bed. All the feelings he’d tried to brush aside and lock away somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind suddenly flooded through him, and it felt like everything in the world had disappeared other than him and Rose. 

There was something about her that was different than he remembered. She looked the same, other than slightly longer hair, but there was age in her eyes that didn’t belong there. “My Doctor,” she said softly. Then she dropped out of the bed to kneel next to him, and pulled him into a hug.

The Doctor’s arms immediately wrapped around her, and he didn’t want to ever let go again. He pressed kisses against the top of her head, not caring that he wasn’t met with the scent of her usual strawberry shampoo. He finally pulled away, but only enough to look at her, still not letting go of her for a second. “You’re really here. How…?” 

Rose sighed, and reached up to gently touch the Doctor’s face, as though she was just afraid of this being an illusion as he was. “Bad Wolf,” she said quietly, and the Doctor gulped to hear those two words again, but he waited patiently for her to continue. “I had so much power in me in that moment, Doctor. It killed me. But Bad Wolf was never just me, it was me and the TARDIS, and she didn’t want me to die, so when I brought Jack back, I brought myself as well. But whatever happened to me, it made me different. I didn’t even remember any of until I fell into the void. I thought I was going to die, but I didn’t. Or maybe I did, over and over again. All I can really remember is what seemed like hundreds of years of pain and nothing else. And then after all of that, I saw some of the Cybermen escaping, and I followed them through. That was two years ago, and I’ve been here since.”

It broke the Doctor’s hearts to know that Rose had suffered so much, but he couldn’t help also feeling utter joy at having Rose in his arms again, and knowing that she was alive, and the hope that maybe they could have forever together after all. “Why did you wait so long to contact me?”

“Oh leave her alone,” Jack suddenly spoke up from where he was still waiting by the door. “She’s basically been lying and bed and doing nothing but recovering for the past two years.”

The Doctor glanced over at Jack, and then his eyes flicked over to his companions. He felt bad for pretty much ignoring them the moment he’d heard Rose’s voice, but they seemed to be alright, just confused and concerned. He looked back at Jack. “And how do you play into all of this, then?”

Jack walked closer to them, and tapped the vortex manipulator that was wrapped around his arm. “I’m a Time Agent. There was a rift opening here, so I was sent to take care of it. I found Rose, and I’ve been taking care of her.”

The Doctor blinked once. “Two years?” And Jack didn’t seem to have recognized Rose when they met during the Blitz. He looked at Rose, and she gave a very slight nod. The Doctor pressed another kiss to the top of her head. “That TARDIS isn’t too far from here. Can you walk?”

He got to his feet, carefully pulling Rose up as well. She seemed unsteady, and the Doctor itched to get her into the medbay on the TARDIS and do a full panel of scans to make sure that she was really okay. All of them traipsed back to the TARDIS in silence, with the Doctor and Jack both essentially holding Rose up. 

As soon as they stepped onto the ship, though, a little bit more color seemed to appear on Rose’s cheeks, and she slowly made her way over to the console, pressing her hands against it lovingly. The Doctor set the coordinates for some random place, and asked Rory and Amy to go to their room to change. Amy looked like she wanted to barrage him with questions, but for once she actually listened to him, and pulled her husband away with her.

Once the TARDIS landed, the Doctor apologized to Jack before reaching up to touch the man’s temples. He couldn’t let a paradox happen, which meant that Jack needed to not remember the past two years. So the Doctor pushed the memories down, and locked them with a keyword. If he ever bumped into Jack again in his current timeline, the Doctor would unlock those memories. Then he dropped Jack off and quickly returned to the TARDIS to leave again.

Rose already looked steadier on her feet than she had an hour ago, but the Doctor still led her to the medbay. She flopped down onto one of the two beds in there, and he ran every scan he could think of, as well as taking a hair to run through a few tests. Once that was all done, the Doctor led Rose to her room. 

Even after the TARDIS had been destroyed and all the rooms erased, the ship had still stubbornly held on to Rose’s room and all of her stuff. Rose looked around in amazement. “It’s exactly like I remember it.” She didn’t even hesitate to start taking off her nineteenth century clothing, and grabbed a pair of leggings and a large tee shirt that had been discarded onto the floor years ago. The Doctor looked away while she changed, but didn’t leave the room, unable to bear the idea of letting her out of his sight for very long.

Rose crawled onto her bed, and then patted the open space next to her. “Stay?”

The Doctor gulped, and then took off his shoes and jacket before climbing onto the bed next to her, and turning on his side to face her. He took in every detail, and found that she looked just as beautiful as she ever had. “I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered.

She gave him a smile that, while still not close to the brightness she could achieve, was still utterly radiant. “I missed you too.” She reached out to put her hand down on the space between them, and after a moment of hesitation, the Doctor put his hand on top of hers. “How long has it been for you since I fell?”

The Doctor gulped before answering. Both of them spoke in whispers, as though they were afraid of startling each other. “About four hundred years.”

Rose’s eyes widened, and then she scooted a little bit closer to the Doctor. “I’m glad that you found other people.”

“Rose, Amy and Rory are good friends, and I’ve found other friends too, but nobody could ever compare to you.”

She raised one eyebrow. “Are you sure about that, Doctor? It’s been so long. We’ve both changed so much.”

The Doctor moved his hand up to brush some hair back from Rose’s face, not wanting her eyes to be obscured. She grabbed his other hand, and it occurred to the Doctor that after hundreds of years of literally nothing but unending pain, she must be aching for gentle contact. He wished that his skin wasn’t so cool, so that he could warm her up, but she didn’t seem to mind. 

They talked quietly for a little while longer, until Rose eventually fell asleep. The Doctor was glad that he didn’t require nearly as much sleep as humans did, because he was perfectly content to just lie there and enjoy the feeling of Rose in his arms, and taking in every detail of her appearance as if he could stop himself from forgetting her again. But the emotional toll of the day had apparently been more exhausting than he thought, because the Doctor ended up drifting off to sleep, nightmare free for the first time in centuries.

,,,

When the Doctor woke up to an empty bed, he panicked. Had he just fallen asleep in Rose’s room and imagined the entire thing? He leapt to his feet and looked around wildly. He spotted the discarded dress on the floor, and let out a sigh of relief. Then he silently begged the TARDIS to bring him to Rose, and he found himself in the garden.

There were, of course, hundreds of different kinds of plants from hundreds of different planets, but Rose had skipped past all of those, and was curled up on the chair in the corner. The chair that was surrounded by every color of rose that could be found on Earth, as well as a few that couldn’t be. She also had a jacket draped over her shoulders, and it took the Doctor a moment to realize that it was his, the leather jacket that he’d worn back when he’d first met Rose.

She slowly looked up at him, and pulled the jacket tighter around herself, while also looking guilty. “I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have taken it without asking, it’s just…” she trailed off, and bit her lip.

The Doctor hurried over, nearly tripping over his own feet in his haste. “No, no, you can have it. I promise that it won’t make me upset. It’s not really my style anymore, anyway.”

“Thanks. I just…” but she still couldn’t explain, and the Doctor didn’t care. He gave her a reassuring smile, and felt his hearts race when she returned it. “So what’s for breakfast then, Time Lord?”

The Doctor grinned, reaching out one hand. He didn’t have to wait long for Rose to grab it, and then he pulled her to her feet. She looked much healthier than she had yesterday, already back to how he remembered her, other than the long hair, but he still didn’t run, not wanting to hurt her. 

Rory was already in the kitchen when they got there, though it was still too early for Amy to be up and about for anything short of the TARDIS being on fire. Suddenly the Doctor felt awkward, and knew that his current companions must be pretty confused by what was going on. He cleared his throat once, and then spoke, all while still holding Rose’s hand. It still fit perfectly in his, which was something he was glad to learn. “Ah, Rory, good morning! Rose, this is Rory Pond-” the declaration was met with an eye roll but no protest, “and Rory, this is Rose Tyler! She used to travel with me a while back, and now…” then he couldn’t continue as a thought struck him. What if Rose didn’t want to stay with him anymore? After all, it was his fault that she’d gone through hundreds of years of torture and that she was never going to see her family again, and that-

“Nice to meet you,” Rory was saying as he shook Rose’s free hand. He gave Rose a searching look, and then there was a small sympathetic smile on his face. “So you must have all kinds of stories about the Doctor, then, right?”

Rose grinned. “Oh yeah, loads. Like the first time he took me home to see my mum, and he said that it would only be twelve hours later, but it turned out to be an entire year!” 

Rory grinned too. “Oh, that’s nothing. When he first met my wife, he said he’d be back in five minutes, but instead came back twelve years later, and then when he went to pick her up again, it had been another two years.”

The Doctor groaned half-heartedly, but he really didn’t mind if they wanted to tease him, not if it meant seeing that beautiful smile on Rose’s face. Rory poured tea for all of them, and then they sat down to chat about all the unimportant things that had happened to the Doctor since he’d last seen Rose, and some of the lighter adventures Rose had been on. The tone was kept casual, and the Doctor gave Rory a small nod of thanks, since the man seemed to understand that Rose had already been through so much. 

Without even meaning to, at some point the Doctor’s hand migrated towards Rose’s, and they ended up holding hands, resting on Rose’s lap. It had been so long since there had been a hand that fit so perfectly in his.

Eventually Amy woke up and made her way to the kitchen, though the Doctor and Rory had both already learned their lesson long ago about trying to talk to her before she’d had at least a single cup of tea, sometimes more. Once she looked more alive, she sat down next to her husband, and looked at Rose curiously. “The Doctor’s never mentioned you before.”

Rose glanced at the Doctor, and he felt sheepish. After everything that had happened with Sarah Jane, he knew that Rose must not be happy with the idea of him never talking about her to his next companions, but it had just been too painful. Donna and Martha had only learned Rose’s name through circumstance, but there had never been any reason to bring it up with Amy or Rory. But Rose didn’t say anything about it, instead just giving the Doctor’s hand a light squeeze before turning to look at Amy. “I traveled with him a long time ago,” she said dismissively. “He definitely would not have worn a bow tie when I last saw him.”

“So you knew him before he… regenerated?” Amy almost stumbled over the word. “Does that mean that he actually dressed reasonably before?”

“Oi- bowties are cool!” the Doctor interjected, but both women just ignored him.

Rose nodded. “Yeah. Well, kinda. He did wear chucks with a pinstripe suit, but he called it _nerd chic_.”

Amy tilted her head to the side. “Actually, I think I might remember that. The first and second time we met, he was wearing a raggedy old suit, so it must have been what you’re talking about. I didn’t have much time to really think about it, considering I was only seven the first time and he was rushing around to save the world in twenty minutes the second time, but yeah, I think that’s what he was wearing.”

Rose glanced at the Doctor, a worried frown on her face. The Doctor couldn’t help thinking that Rose Tyler should never be upset, especially not over him. “How did you regenerate?” But then she seemed to realize that it wasn’t a question he wanted to answer in depth at the moment, because she just shrugged. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter now anyways. No matter what happened, it led you back to me.” She hesitated for a moment, and then tipped her head over so that it was resting on the Doctor’s shoulder.

The Doctor immediately felt his entire body go stiff. He didn’t want to move at all and risk her moving away from him. It had been so long since he’d had her with him, feeling comfortable enough to… to cuddle. 

They all talked for a little while longer, still about mostly inconsequential things, and then Amy quietly asked where they were going next. The Doctor glanced at Rose, and even though she looked healthy enough now, he had no idea where she was at mentally, and didn’t want to bring her into a potentially dangerous situation that could cause further trauma. Ideally, he would just bring Rose home, but he was selfishly glad that she had no one left at home to go with, and he wasn’t going to just leave her on her own. 

Rory mumbled something about needing help with something, and then grabbed his wife’s hand to drag her out of the room so that the Doctor and Rose could have some privacy to talk, without Amy’s nosiness getting in the way. When they were alone, the Doctor turned to look at Rose, taking in every detail once more. He didn’t think he’d ever get enough of her. “Rose, you’ve been through so much, and I would never want to make you go through anything that would make you uncomfortable or unhappy or-”

Rose reached out to put a finger on the Doctor’s lips to silence him, and he had to force himself not to grab her wrist and keep her hand there when she pulled away. “Doctor, I’m not going to lie to you. I know that I’m not fine. I know that I may never be fine again. Or at least not the way I was before I fell. But one of the things that kept me going, even when I was suffering through something worse than I could have ever imagined, was the thought of you. I didn’t have any hope of getting back to you, but I loved to lose myself in my memories of our time together. Of all of our adventures, and all of the running. I know that we could end up in dangerous or scary places, and that we will probably end up running, but I want that, Doctor. I want to do that with you. I want to feel like I’m home again.” She sighed, and then reached up to start twirling some of her hair around her finger. “Besides, I doubt that I could ever go through anything worse than what I’ve already been through.”

The Doctor clenched his jaw, and it took a great deal of effort to stop himself from crying. He didn’t want to make Rose feel worse or anything. But he would cry for her later, for sure. She was so strong and brave and perfect. “We can go wherever you want to go,” he promised. “All of time and space, Rose Tyler.”

She smiled, and the Doctor felt his hearts beat much faster than normal. He waited for her to suggest a place, but he didn’t care how long it took her to think about it, as long as he could keep looking at her all the while. “I think we should go see Jack,” she suddenly said. “I never got the chance to apologize to him for what I did to him.” 

The Doctor nodded. “Sure.” He was pretty sure that it would be awkward to see the man again after the way that he’d left things with him, but he didn’t care, because he would take Rose anywhere that she asked. “Also, you should know that Mickey is here, in this universe. If you want to see him.”

There was a distant look in Rose’s eyes, and the Doctor wished that he could read her mind, to know what she was thinking about. “Yeah, at some point soon. But Jack first. And then you can let him remember the time he took care of me. I feel so bad for him. All this time he wondered what could have happened during his two missing years, worrying about the things he might have done, and all he did was take care of me. He deserves to know that. It’s the least I can do after…” 

The Doctor quickly shook his head. “Rose, he doesn’t blame you for making him immortal,” _hopefully_, “and I’m not sure where exactly we can find him, but we will, I promise.”

“Oh, I actually know this one! Wait right here!” Rose turned and ran out of the kitchen, and the Doctor wanted to run after her, even though Rose had just asked him to wait. If he could have, the Doctor probably would have left Rose’s side again, but he knew that she was human and humans needed some amount of space. It didn’t take her very long to come back, and she had a small black microchip in her hand. “Here! I took it from Jack in the past, but it’s connected to his vortex manipulator, so as long as you haven’t taken it away from him, you should be able to use it to find him.”

The Doctor took the chip and then took Rose’s hand to return to the console room together. It didn’t take him very long to track down Jack, and then calculate which version was most likely to be the current Jack in his timeline. After figuring it out, he put in the coordinates, and took off.

Amy and Rory showed up quickly, probably recognizing the feeling of traveling at this point. “So where are we headed?”

“Ah, London 2003.” He hesitated for a moment before adding, “Powell Estate.” 

Rose tilted her head, but didn’t say anything about it. They landed soon, in the same place that the Doctor had always landed when taking Rose home to visit her mum. The same place he had parked the day they’d come home and found themselves faced with a mystery that led to Rose falling into the void. 

They stepped outside, but then the Doctor gave Rose a cautious look. “Maybe you should stay here. If you run into yourself or your mum, it could cause problems.”

Rose’s eyes widened, and alarm flashed through them for just a moment, but still there long enough for the Doctor to catch it. “Yeah, that’s fine. No problem.”

“You know, I’m actually feeling a bit peckish myself,” Rory suddenly announced. “I think I’m just going to stay here and scrounge up some tea.”

Amy pretended to groan. “Oh, he’s garbage at cooking. He’s more likely to burn the kitchen down than anything.”

Rose took in a deep breath, then slowly let it out. She’d always been brilliant, and she had to know what the Ponds were doing, but she went along with it anyways. “Oh, I suppose I’d better save the kitchen, then. Come on, Mr. Pond, I shall show you a thing or two. Just don’t ask for shepherd's pie, because the only recipe I have for that is my mum’s.” Both her and the Doctor grimaced at the same time at the thought of eating Jackie Tyler’s shepherd's pie. 

Rory and Rose turned to go back inside the TARDIS, and the Doctor could hear Rory saying something about actually being Mr. Williams before the doors closed behind them. The Doctor cleared his throat. “Looks like it’s just you and me, Pond. Come on.” 

They followed the electronic signature of Jack’s vortex manipulator, and after walking down the street, Amy suddenly decided to speak. “So what happened to her? And don’t you dare say nothing. The moment you saw her yesterday, you looked like you’d seen a ghost. And she looked close to being one, too.”

The Doctor sighed, and reached up to scratch at the back of his neck while he thought about how to explain Rose’s situation. “Have you ever heard of Canary Wharf?”

Amy nodded. “Yeah. I think I was about eighteen when that went down. Cybermen appearing all over the world and then getting sucked away.” There was a thoughtful look on her face as she continued. “I’m assuming that you were somehow responsible for that part?”

The Doctor glanced down at his tracker, deliberately not meeting Amy’s eyes. “Yeah. That was a long time ago for me, back when I traveled with Rose. We opened a rift that would pull in anything with void stuff on it- meaning anything that had traveled to another universe. Rose refused to leave me, even though it would have been safer for her in the other universe, and I thought that it meant we would… anyways, she ended up getting pulled into the void.”

Amy narrowed her eyes. “What exactly does that mean? What’s the void?”

Even the Doctor had never actually been in the void, at least not for longer than a few seconds, and not without the protection of a sturdy TARDIS around him. “It’s sorta the space in between all parallel universes. There’s nothing there, though. No light, no dark, no temperature, no distance, no time, just… nothing. I know that human brains can’t really conceptualize the idea of nothing, and to be honest, even a Time Lord brain can’t. But Rose was trapped there, for hundreds of years.”

There was only silence as they continued walking, and then Amy reached up to put her hand on the Doctor’s arm. “You’re right, I can’t imagine it. But we’ll take care of her, I promise. All of us, together.”

Before the Doctor could respond, his tracker started making little beeping noises, and the Doctor ran forward. There, sitting on a park bench, staring up at Rose’s house, was Jack. He looked older than the Doctor remembered, though it had been a while, and Jack had said that he still aged. 

The Doctor walked over to him, and sat down on the bench. “I’m the Doctor, and it turns out Rose is still alive after all, and she really wants to see you.”

Jack turned to look at the Doctor in shock. “What? I mean-” then he paused to look at the Doctor, and let out a small laugh. “You look like a cross between a toddler and a crotchety old man.” Then his laugh faded, and he gave the Doctor an intense look. “Are you serious? Rose is alive?” The Doctor nodded, and Jack leapt up to his feet. “Well let’s go then!” 

The three of them practically ran back to the TARDIS, and the Doctor snapped to open the doors so that Jack could just run right in. The man stopped for a moment to look around, since the inside looked different than when he’d last seen it, and then he glanced back at the Doctor. “Where is she?”

The Doctor opened his mouth to ask the TARDIS, but suddenly Rose was racing into the console room and flinging herself into Jack’s arms. He held on tightly, and the Doctor suddenly felt guilty for not trying harder to convince Jack to stay. The man must have been so lonely all this time. “You’re really alive,” Jack kept repeating, sounding shocked.

Rose nodded. “I’m so sorry, Jack. I’m so sorry for what I did to you.”

“It’s fine,” Jack told her with a watery sounding laugh. “If I’d died back on that Game Station, I never would have gotten to see you again, right? Besides, it’s definitely come in handy more than once.” He pulled away from the hug after another few long seconds. He frowned slightly, and the Doctor assumed that Jack could see the difference in Rose’s eyes. “Where have you been, Rosie?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’ve got plenty of time. But you don’t have to talk until you’re ready, I promise.” Then they hugged again before finally separating completely. 

Rose looked over at the Doctor, and nodded once. So he made his way over to Jack, and leaned forward to speak quietly. He whispered the phrase he’d used to lock Jack’s memories, which were in Gallifreyan to make sure that they wouldn’t accidentally unlock too soon. Jack stumbled back, and reached up to touch his head as he was flooded with two years’ worth of memories. Then he finally looked up at Rose. “It was you?”

She nodded, looking like she was about to cry. “I’m so sorry, Jack. I had no idea you were going to show up in 1849, and then you were there, and I couldn’t be alone, and you didn’t know us when we met the first time, and-”

He held up one hand, and Rose bit her lip to stop herself from talking. “I never thought that I’d figure out what happened during those two years. Of all the things I could have imagined, I never once thought that I was with you.” Then he lurched over to pull her into another hug. “I’m glad that I was there for you, Rosie. I wish that I didn’t have to have gone so long without knowing, but to know that I didn’t do anything unforgivable during that time…” 

Rose’s shoulders slumped down as she returned the hug, clearly relieved by his reaction. “You don’t have to be alone anymore, Jack. I’m a lot like you now. I’m going to be around for a long time. It’s how I survived- everything.” Then she pulled away to give him something close to the teasing looks that she’d always used to pull off so easily. “What were you doing in 2003, anyways?”

Jack chuckled nervously. “Ah, I’ve just been… checking in on you. Don’t worry, I always make sure that you don’t see me. But I thought that you were gone, and it made me feel better to see you, alive and bright.”

There was a soft look on Rose’s face. “Thank you, Jack. I don’t remember ever seeing you when I was growing up, but I feel safer knowing that you were there for me.”

After a few more minutes, all of them retreated to the kitchen, where the oven beeped just as they walked in. Rory put on oven mitts, and then pulled out a steaming pan of lasagna. Amy gave an appreciative sniff. “It really is a good thing that you were here, because that smells amazing.”

They ate the lasagna, all of them having seconds of course, and then went to the media room to watch a movie. Normally Amy picked the movies, but she graciously let Rose choose. Rose picked some random comedy that the Doctor was pretty sure she’d seen about a thousand times already, and then they all got settled down. Rory and Amy sat on the smaller loveseat, while Jack, the Doctor, and Rose all squished onto the couch, with Rose in between the two men. The Doctor felt brave enough to take Rose’s hand as they sat there, and he found himself barely paying any attention to the movie. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d felt so happy.

,,,

The five of them traveled around together for a while, and the Doctor wondered if he’d ever had such a full house before. Eventually, though, Jack said that he needed to get back to his responsibilities. He winced before admitting that he worked for Torchwood. Rose just gave him a kiss on the cheek, and said that she knew it had to be a much better place now if he was the one running it. Then Jack made her promise to visit often. 

It was longer still until the Ponds wanted to go back to their lives. Once they were gone, the TARDIS felt strangely quiet, and the Doctor wasn’t sure how to fill the silence. At one point, he’d been so used to it that he’d hardly noticed, but after having so many people around, it felt bizarre.

The silence was much worse on Rose, though. The Doctor tried to stick with her whenever possible, usually with him rambling away about something or other while she smiled indulgently at him, but the Doctor noticed that whenever they were on their own, Rose would play loud music or videos. She was also often seen to be wrapped up in a weighted blanket that the TARDIS had provided for her. The Doctor also noticed that pretty much any time he wasn’t holding her hand, she would clasp her own hands together. At night, they curled up together, usually on the Doctor’s bed, and when Rose woke up gasping and crying, the Doctor would be there to soothe her back to sleep.

None of that seemed particularly bad to the Doctor. He would have accepted just about anything if it meant having his Rose back. But maybe he should have been more concerned from the beginning. One night, the Doctor realized that there was a missing piece of the TARDIS that he just Had To Have. Rose loved crowded places much more now than she ever had before, but she was sleeping when the Doctor was struck with inspiration, and he hated to wake her up when she was actually getting good rest.

So the Doctor stupidly thought that he could just run out shopping and be back before she was up. The Doctor was in the middle of inspecting the piece he’d found, when he felt a jolt of alarm coming from the TARDIS. He immediately dropped it and ran back to the ship as fast as he could. As soon as he opened the doors, he felt like he was going to be shoved back by the force of just how loud the music was playing, vibrating everything in sight.

The TARDIS needed no prompting to bring the Doctor to Rose. He was brought to the pool room, where he spotted a blob of color in the water. The Doctor didn’t even stop to kick off his shoes before diving under the water and grabbing Rose to pull her out. She started gasping for breath as soon as they broke the surface, and then the Doctor brought her over to the floor and pulled them both out of the water.

It took him a minute to untangle Rose from her weighted blanket, which had gotten knotted around her in the pool. Then he pulled her into a tight hug, and made soft shushing noises that couldn’t be heard over the music as she sobbed. The Doctor felt a headache coming on, and knew it had to be worse for Rose’s sensitive human ears. He stroked the wall, and silently asked the TARDIS to turn off the music. Instead of turning it off completely, it just went down to a much lower volume, so that it was left just barely audible.

Rose continued to cry into the Doctor’s shoulder for almost an entire hour before she fell asleep in his arms. The Doctor easily picked her up, and then awkwardly did his best to change her into dry clothes without looking at her body. Once he was done, he quickly changed himself into dry things as well, and then got under the blankets to pull Rose close to him. He knew that his hearts were still beating too quickly, but he couldn’t force himself to calm down. 

Now that he was still and Rose was resting, the Doctor’s emotions could settle over him, and he felt such fear. What if he hadn’t gotten back in time? What had happened? Why hadn’t the TARDIS done something to stop Rose from blasting music loudly enough to potentially cause her harm? 

He absent-mindedly drew Gallifreyan words across Rose’s back, careful to keep his touch light enough that it wouldn’t wake her up. Whatever had happened, clearly she needed her sleep. And the Doctor couldn’t help but worry. It was like he told Amy- he didn’t have the ability to truly understand what Rose had been through. There was probably nobody in the entire universe who did. 

The Doctor spent the next few hours watching over Rose. He was almost surprised that he never once got the itch to get up and move about. Usually he couldn’t sit still for longer than a few minutes, and even then it was usually only when lives were at stake. Because the Doctor was watching over Rose so closely, it was easy for him to tell the moment she began to wake up, as her pulse picked up slightly and her heart rate increased. 

She let out a soft gasp as she suddenly looked up, and the moment she spotted the Doctor, there was a pained look on her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, fidgeting with the edge of the blanket.

“You don’t need to apologize for anything, Rose. I just… if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly happened?”

Rose didn’t look into his eyes when she spoke. “I woke up alone, and it was so quiet, but I thought that it would be okay, and I thought that it would be comforting to sit in the pool room so that I could hear the music echoing around, but it didn’t help. It was just too quiet, and the lights were too dim, and I could hear the sound of my own heartbeat, and I tried to run away, but I tripped over my blanket and I fell and I couldn’t feel anything and I couldn’t breath and-”

The Doctor pulled her into a tight hug as her voice broke, and even though she didn’t cry this time, he could feel her shaking in his arms. “Rose, what you’ve been through- well, no living thing was ever meant to survive that environment. But you did, because you’re the most amazing person ever. You’re so strong to have survived through all of that, Rose. And it doesn’t make you any less strong to accept help. You don’t have to talk about what happened, but if you could just tell me what will help you, then I swear I will do everything in my power to get it down.”

Rose took a few deep breaths and slowly let them out before leaning away from the Doctor. “Noise helps a lot. When I was stuck, the only sound that seemed to exist was my own organs, and if I start to hear my heartbeat, I’ll start to panic. Jack played the flute for me; that’s how I figured out that music works. He also stayed around me and talked with me a lot. I need to hear the sound of my own voice, as stupid as that sounds. And I need to be able to feel things- anything, really.” Then she bowed her head. “I’m sorry that I’m so much trouble, Doctor. I’d understand if you just want to drop me off. I’m not exactly the most fun companion at the moment.”

The Doctor took Rose’s hands, and squeezed them gently. “I only care about you being as well off as possible, Rose.” He hesitated for a moment before adding, “And you’ve never been just a companion to me.” He gave Rose an encouraging smile as he tried to think of a solution. Even though he didn’t want to ever let Rose out of his sight, he knew that that wouldn’t always be possible. And he doubted that there was any therapist on any planet who would be able to understand enough of Rose’s ordeal to be able to help her. “Have you ever thought of getting a pet?” he suddenly asked.

Rose shook her head. “Not really. We got some stray cats back on the estate because Mum never nailed down the cat flap, but they weren’t particularly friendly.”

“I was just thinking that maybe it could help. Like one of those emotional support animals. A pet could provide noise, contact, and someone for you to talk to. And if they were trained well enough, they could alert someone if you start to have a panic attack while you’re alone. We’ve got all of time and space at our fingertips, Rose. You could have any kind of pet in the universe. You don’t have to decide now, of course. Just an idea to consider.”

She only seemed to think about it for a moment before responding. “Maybe it would be nice to have a dog. One of those really big, furry ones. And there’s plenty of space on the TARDIS to take them on walks.”

The Doctor grinned. “Now are you sure that you want just a dog, Rose Tyler? Because I happen to know of several species similar to dogs that could be all kinds of exciting.”

“Oh, you think you’re so impressive,” she teased.

And it felt so good to hear her say that, that the Doctor nearly forgot to say his own line. “I am so impressive. Now come on!” He led her to the console room, and set the coordinates. They landed pretty quickly, and then the Doctor tugged Rose out of the TARDIS, not caring that both of them were still in their jimjams. “Proaxaporis VI. Known as one of the best places in the universe to get a pet yeallaw. They’re extremely loyal and smart creatures. And of course, very soft.” 

The Doctor watched Rose’s face carefully as they stepped inside the nearest building, and were led to the animals. Yeallaws did look somewhat similar to certain breeds of Earth dogs, though they had between three and six legs, almost human looking eyes, and very soft fur. Rose walked through the rows of them, petting each one on the head a few times before moving on.

She finally stopped in front of a particularly small one, only going up to just above Rose’s hips. She knelt down in front of the animal, and gave it a few extra pets. The yeallaw stayed patiently still, letting Rose go to it while some of the other ones had been more enthusiastic. Rose stood up again and turned to look at the Doctor. “I think I found the one.”

The Doctor took care of the small details (having thought ahead to sonic a cash point before going into the shelter) and a few small bits of paperwork. He watched Rose out of the corner of his eye, as she kissed the yeallaw’s head, and grinned to himself. Of course he knew that a pet wasn’t going to magically solve Rose’s problems, but he still felt quite proud of himself for coming up with an idea that was getting Rose to smile so much. “What are you going to name him?”

“Well I was thinking ‘Doctor’,” she joked (or at least, he hoped she was joking) “but then I was afraid that would get too confusing. Hm, how about… Ant?”

The Doctor raised one eyebrow. “Isn’t that name gonna confuse the poor boy?”

She stuck her tongue out at him before her face got more serious. “Mum always told me that if I’d been a boy, her and dad would have named me Anthony. I think the full name is a bit human for this good boy, but Ant could work. Is that stupid?”

He quickly shook his head. “No, that’s not stupid at all.” He filled the name in on the required spots, and then he was finally down, so he knelt down next to Rose and Ant. “So he’s already got most of the basic training down, it’ll just be a bit of a learning process to get him to understand your specific needs. But he’s smart, even if he is the runt of his litter, and I’m sure that he’ll learn quickly enough.”

They took Ant back to the TARDIS, and the Doctor pretended that Ant had acted surprised by the ‘bigger on the inside’ so that he could give his usual speech about different dimensions. Rose giggled, and the Doctor was almost afraid that his hearts were going to just stop.

Ant already responded to his name, and happily trotted after Rose as she led him on a tour of his new home. It would probably be too dangerous to bring Ant out on their adventures, but generally the Doctor and Rose were able to stick together during those. Or worst case scenario, one of them would be snatched up by an enemy, though there was still bound to be other people around to help keep Rose sane. The Doctor had made sure to only go to densely populated places lately.

And the Doctor certainly didn’t pout when he walked into the kitchen the next morning and found Ant perched in his usual chair as if he’d always been sitting there. Time Lords didn’t do anything as undignified as pout. Not even when they had to pick a new seat because yeallaws were heavy and stubborn, a combination that meant they could pretty much never be moved against their will. 

Rose laughed at him as she set three plates down on the table. “You know, I’m pretty sure that dogs are supposed to eat on the floor, not the table.”

Rose gave Ant a quick hug before sitting down next to the Doctor. “It’s alright, I don’t mind. Do you?”

The Doctor sighed and shook his head. “No, no, it’s totally fine. Just don’t tell me that you planned on letting him drive the ship, too. I do have to draw the line somewhere if I want to avoid being replaced.”

Rose laughed again, and then leaned over to kiss the Doctor’s cheek. “Don’t worry, I could never replace you.”

The Doctor had to look away so that Rose wouldn’t be able to see the pink flush of his cheeks. 

,,,

It had been so long since they’d been on a truly dangerous planet that the Doctor found himself nearly out of practice when it came to running. But there was something undeniably familiar about it all, especially when he had Rose’s hand clasped in his. It felt like this was the way things were always meant to be.

,,,

Rose got hurt trying to save someone who had just spent the past week trying to destroy an entire city. And if the Doctor hadn’t been so eager to rush her to the medbay on the TARDIS, he might have done something that he would regret. As it was, he could see the attempted murderer being arrested, which would have to be good enough.

He laid Rose out on one of the beds, and began pulling out different tools that could be used to fix her up. It wasn’t until he’d gathered everything he thought he’d need that he took another look at Rose, and then stopped in his tracks. The giant gaping wound that had been in her chest a few minutes ago was just… gone. 

The Doctor ran a few scans, and they all came up with the same result: Rose Tyler was about as healthy as any human could hope to be. Of course, on some level, he’d known that she had made it through the void, lived a few hundred years there, and had outright told him that she was going to be around for a long time. But somehow, none of that prepared him for actually seeing her heal in just a few minutes from an injury that probably should have killed her instantly. Not that he was complaining, of course! But still, it was strange. He wondered if this was anything close to what Rose had felt after dealing with his regeneration for the first time. 

It didn’t take very long for Rose to wake up, and even though the Doctor had planned on lecturing her for her recklessness, all he could feel was an overwhelming sense of relief. Before he could stop and think about the million reasons why it was a terrible idea, he found himself leaning into Rose’s space and kissing her right on the mouth for the first time (weeelll, that was if one didn’t count the previous two kisses, neither of which had taken place when Rose was conscious and willing. And besides, it was the first kiss with these particular lips, so it still counted). 

For a moment, Rose didn’t respond, and the Doctor started to panic, thinking that he’d misread everything between them, but when he started to pull him away, Rose reached up to grab hold of his suspenders and tug him back so that they could continue kissing. They didn’t stop until Rose needed to breath, and even then, the Doctor remained where he was. “Doctor?”

“Hm?” He felt dazed by the kiss. Of course he’d experienced many different kisses in his thousand years, but kissing Rose felt more special than anything, and he knew that he had to be grinning like a fool at the moment. 

“I love you,” Rose whispered.

The Doctor gave Rose another kiss before pulling away and just looking at her, appreciating how alive and lovely she was. “Quite right, too.” Then he cleared his throat and stood up straight, hoping that Rose would be able to see how serious he was. There were certain things that he knew he wouldn’t be able to say very often, and once upon a time, he’d thought that maybe they didn’t need saying at all, but if he’d learned anything in losing Rose, it was that it did need saying. “Rose Tyler… I love you so much that if you started measuring at the beginning of the universe and ended at the end of it, it would still never get anywhere close to how much I love you.” There seemed to be tears in Rose’s eye, though there was a wide smile on her face, and she hopped off the bed to stand in front of the Doctor. She reached out to grab his hands, and continued to smile up at him, and the Doctor hoped that he never grew immune to the effects of her smiles. “So, where are we heading next?”

Rose blinked a couple of times, and then her grin grew. “Oh just this once, I’ll let you decide.”

The Doctor lifted one of Rose’s hands so that he could kiss her knuckles, and then turned to run to the console room, bringing her along with him. Ant was already waiting there, and he leapt up to cover Rose in slobbery kisses the moment he spotted her. She let out a loud peal of laughter, and the Doctor knew in that moment, without any doubt, that he was the luckiest man in the universe.


End file.
